The remains of what could be the largest dinosaur ever discovered in Europe are being excavated in a Portuguese garden.

The fossilized skeleton of a sauropod was discovered in the central town of Pombal in 2017 when a man began renovating his house.

Sauropods were the largest of all dinosaurs and the largest land animals that ever lived.

They had long necks and tails, ate plants and walked on four legs, the

bbc reports.

Earlier this month, paleontologists from Portugal and Spain discovered parts of the spine and ribs of a possible brachiosaurid sauropod that suggests the large reptile was about 12 meters long and 25 meters long.

The skeleton was found in Upper Jurassic sedimentary rocks, suggesting it is about 150 million years old.

The skeleton - found in the position where the dinosaur probably died - is now being studied by an international research team.

Because of the skeleton's relatively intact positioning, paleontologists working on the dig hope there are more they have yet to find.

"It is not common to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, preserving their original anatomical position," said Phys Elisabete Malafaia, postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.

/Telegraph/